Nevertheless, you should file a bug, if you want something changed:
http://tinyurl.com/2vvv8vz
Btw, the bug that Laura mentioned:
http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=9631
leif halvard silli
Dean Leigh, Tue, 8 Jun 2010 10:43:06 +0100:
> Thank you for pointing that pointing that out Laura.
> My post was really about using a technique such as for="" + id="",
> the name of the captioning element could then be something that
> doesn’t have legacy issues.
>
> Regards,
> Dean Leigh
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: public-html-request@w3.org [mailto:public-html-request@w3.org] On
>> Behalf Of Laura Carlson
>> Sent: 08 June 2010 09:56
>> To: Dean Leigh
>> Cc: public-html@w3.org
>> Subject: Re: aside and figure elements
>>
>> Hi Dean,
>>
>> Using <caption> element for a generalized captioning element seems to
>> be to be a good idea but there are legacy parsing issues. Check:
>> http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=6543
>>
>> Leif has previously suggested using <summary> or <subject>.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Laura
>>
>> On 6/7/10, Dean Leigh <dean.leigh@deanleigh.co.uk> wrote:
>>> If the main aim of <figure><figcaption> etc is to ensure that
>>> images/video/tables/content blocks have captions then would a combination
>> of
>>> an ID and something like the for="" as used in form labels suffice?
>>>
>>> Example 1 - Image only:
>>>
>>> <img id="img100" alt="A dog on a bike.">
>>> <caption for="img100">Proof that animals can ride bikes</caption>
>>>
>>> The author could then choose whether the alt text should match the
>> caption
>>> as I can find reasons why it would and wouldn’t.
>>>
>>> Example 2 - Image and Table:
>>>
>>> <aside id="aside100" >
>>> <img alt="A dog on a bike.">
>>> <table>
>>> <tr><td>Dogs Bike</td><td>£50.00</td></tr>
>>> <tr><td>Cats Bike</td><td>£40.00</td></tr>
>>> <tr><td>Budgies Bike</td><td>£30.00</td></tr>
>>> </table>
>>> </aside>
>>> <caption for="aside100">Our three best selling animal bikes</caption>
>>>
>>> (Possibly using JavaScript or CSS on rollover of the rows to show <img
>>> alt="A cat on a bike.">, <img alt="A budgie on a bike.">)
>>>
>>> I have deliberately added this to an <aside> to show that even <asides>
>> may
>>> need captions.
>>> Also as a real world example as this could easily be in the right hand
>>> column of a page about cycling animals.
>>> It could equally have been in the main copy as <article id="art100"> +
>>> <caption for="art100">
>>>
>>> At one of my companies we have gone to a great deal of trouble to ensure
>>> that our CMS maintains best practice without the less technical users
>> being
>>> aware (when adding images to the image library the "Friendly name"
>> becomes
>>> the alt text) but the more technical users have the option to over-ride
>> this
>>> in the advanced interface. An example would be <img alt=“Nice cat”>
>>> appearing as <div class=”caption”>Nice cat</div> below the image
>>> automatically with an Advanced option to edit the caption on or after
>> adding
>>> the image. We still have trouble getting people to use headings in the
>>> correct order of course and this is my point, not all content providers
>> are
>>> technical and will struggle to use "unclearly defined" mark-up correctly.
>>> Please note the difference between unclear and complex.
>>> Please also note the Budgies Bikes go cheap!
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Dean Leigh
>> Laura L. Carlson